ENGAGING, LEARNING, TRANSFORMING

Land reform and rights

Land reform is an essential component of efforts to reduce poverty and inequality. Yet redistributive land reform has been off the policy agenda for decades, despite the recognition of its importance.

IDS research has investigated the poverty reduction and livelihood impacts of land reform in southern Africa over a number of years. This work showed how, given the right institutional and policy conditions, land reform can make major contributions to sustainable livelihoods.

IDS research has tracked the livelihood impacts of the radical land reform that took place in Zimbabwe in 2000 through a longitudinal study. It shows how many people, especially smallholders, benefited, despite the negative media images often presented.

The DFID funded Future Agricultures Consortium is an Africa-based alliance of research organisations seeking to provide timely, high-quality and independent information and advice to improve agricultural policy and practice in Africa. More details

This collaborative project, which involves IDS and is led by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) in South Africa, asks: to what extent is land redistribution in southern Africa achieving poverty reduction and livelihood improvement objectives? More details

The STEPS Centre is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement hub, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It aims to develop a new approach to understanding, action and communication on sustainability and development. More details

Researchers and practitioners concerned with sustainable livelihoods have identified the need both for greater understanding of how government organisations impact on sustainable livelihoods and also for guidelines on how to influence the organisational environment to achieve favourable outcomes. More details

The concept of 'sustainable livelihoods' is increasingly important in the development debate. This paper outlines a framework for analysing sustainable livelihoods, defined here in relation to five key indicators. More details

This paper examines agricultural intensification as a strategy for achieving sustainable livelihoods, comparing evidence from a number of areas that have undergone such a process - in particular, the introduction of Green Revolution methods. More details

Current debate about land and agrarian reform in the post-Soviet Central Asian republics tends to be couched in terms of stark choices between state, collective and private ownership. There is little discussion of the full range of potential tenure arrangements in the 'middle ground' between private and state ownership. More details

This paper addresses some conceptual difficulties of applying the entitlement approach to contexts such as common property regimes, where overlapping institutions or groups of individuals all exert valid claims over a single resource endowment, and where claims on resources are socially sanctioned rather than legally enforceable. More details

Livestock producers are coming in for increasing criticism world-wide on the grounds that livestock production is bad for the environment. But the environmental consequences vary widely, depending on the specific local circumstances. More details